By Targets remaining in Champions League arena
Bby Nsikan Ikpe
Current Glo/CAF African Footballer of the Year and Algerian Footballer of the Year, Riyad Mahrez is letting off hints that he would be quitting Leicester FC at the close of the season.
And his target? Mahrez, who was part of the Leicester team that made it to the Quarter-final stages of Europe’s most prestigious soccer tournament, the Champions League, wants to continue playing at that level.
Pundits say that should this happen, Mahrez is ready to spark a summer transfer scramble by quitting outgoing champions Leicester. The 26-year old winger is reportedly keen to join a Champions League club, and is up for grabs this summer.
It will be recalled that the Algerian international had signed a new four-year deal last summer with Leicester FC soon after clinching the PFA Player of the Year award for his displays as the Foxes surprisingly won the title, but he is understood that his relationship with manager Claudio Ranieri had grossly deteriorated before the Italian’s controversial departure in February.
Mahrez was also said to be unhappy at being substituted in last week’s 1-0 win over West Brom and boss Craig Shakespeare admitted holding talks with the player afterwards.
Among other likely contenders, French club Marseille, set for a big summer of spending bankrolled by ambitious owner Frank McCourt, are keen on Mahrez and could look to offset his desperation for Champions League football with a lucrative pay-packet and the chance to spearhead the club’s resurgence.
But Mahrez is said to be looking even further.
Leicester, which made a surprise showing in the English premiership last year, had reached the quarter-finals of the competition this season, even as they struggled mightily domestically, before being put out by the better experienced Atletico Madrid.
Mahrez has scored 11 goals for club and country this season, the most recent in the Premier League defeat at West Ham on March 18.
Currently the team is fighting to finish in the top 10 of the premiership contest.
Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez and former coach, Claudio Ranieri
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